Open 4 Discussion: A Disclaimer

Hello everyone. 

A recent experience with Blogger has let me know that I need to make something about this blog clear. 

I began this blog initially as a way to educate myself about contemporary ceramics. I decided to share my experience widely with readers because I thought there might be other ceramic artists and ceramic art students with the same thirst for knowledge as my own. You see, from my experience, students who wish to study ceramics usually have very little, if any, access to information about or exposure to the contemporary ceramic art scene. I've actually been quite shocked by how little we know about each other at times, and I see this blog as a small piece of the solution to that sort of isolation. I think we can become better ceramic artists by knowing more about our fellow potters and sculptors. And we can become stronger artists in general by having a stronger understanding of our place within the larger art scene. 

But recently this blog was reported to Google for infringement of an artist's copyright. Now, I greatly respect every artist's work as their own, but I suppose I find myself in the school of thought that if you make art that you want the public to view and ultimately purchase, well then, images of your work that are within the public realm are then for public viewing, most especially within an educational context. Now, I know that my school of thought is not shared by everyone, and probably not even the majority, but I'd like to think that all of you readers appreciate the exposure to other artists that has been facilitated here on (Mud)Bucket. This is why I have had a disclaimer posted on this site to let folks know that if they wish their work not to be shared on this platform, that I would be glad to remove it. 

With that said, an artist recently chose to report me instead of emailing me directly. I'm not sure why I wasn't contacted first, especially with the disclaimer considered, and truth be told, my ego was a little bruised at first. I have no ill-feelings towards the artist who reported me, they were acting to protect their work and I understand that, though from what I'm unsure. If you have ideas on that, please speak up in the comments section. 

When I began this blog I was sharing artists at such a rate that I didn't feel I had time to contact each artist before sharing their work. The blog has slowed since then but my life outside the blogosphere has intensified greatly and I still feel that my time for this blog is rather limited. I have always, however, had a desire to go back through the archives to try and contact all the artists whose work I've shared on this blog, as I do feel it is important for them to know and have a choice of where their work is viewed. I thought the disclaimer would be enough until I was able to begin that task. I see now that it was not. 

Since receiving the notice from Google, I have edited and moved the disclaimer to the top of the page to make sure it is seen by everyone who visits (Mud)Bucket. And I have decided to begin the task of contacting the artists (or their estates) shared here within this blog. Now, this could mean that some content will be permanently removed from the site, but I have faith that most artists won't be so inclined. This task will be lengthy as there are over 300 individual artists that need to be contacted. If you are interested in helping, the biggest thing you can do is let me know if there are images of yours on this blog and whether or not you would like me to remove them (use the search bar if you aren't sure). If you have time, or perhaps students with time, and would like to help me with this process, send me an email. I would greatly appreciate the help. 

In the mean time, things should continue as normal here on the blog, by which I mean slowly but steadily. Please chime in with any ideas or opinions that you have on the issues of copyright and education and on exposure to contemporary artists. This is an open forum.

Thanks for your understanding.

Open 4 Discussion: Clay Comfort

You know... I had a quirky realization this morning as I poured my coffee into my Kristin Pavelka mug. While overall, my sentiments about the southwest and this strange new city are very, very good, I do have my moments where I realize my life has changed drastically in the last month. My friends are all hundreds of miles away... All of them. I have no studio to run off to for a creative kick in the butt. And the art culture in this city is so different from back home and, truth be told, a little more hidden then I'm used to.

Yesterday all these thoughts backed-up a bit and the result was a case of homesickness. It wasn't too bad, but the thought of living away from my city by the bay for so long unsettled me for a while. 

Yet this morning, when I opened my cupboard and looked up at my collection of charming handcrafted mugs, the strangest thing happened. I felt right back at home. As I lifted the curvy green mug with the orange-centered flowers from the back of the shelf, I immediately felt the comfort of my little hobbit hole back in San Francisco. And it's not just the way the mugs look, but the feel of each one in my hand that I have become so familiar with over the last year and a half. And the shape of the lip as a warm drink passes over mine. And the way the grounds from the crumby french-press look when they get trapped at the bottom of each different mug.

I think this is one of the reasons I am so in love with ceramics, and pottery in particular. When objects are hand-crafted, like the ones in my cupboard, they're imbued with a type of character that makes them more of a friend then just a mug. It may sound silly, but I guarantee I  am not the only one who feels this way.

I like when artists really embrace this quality of their creations. Have a read at Michelle Summer's blog, where she talked about this recently. Then tell me what you think. Do you have relationships with some of your pots, or other handmade objects in your home?

Open 4 Discussion: Figuring Out Form

So the proverbial form, as in form follows function.

This mysterious aesthetic angle continues to elude me. As I look at the pieces I've been creating as of late, I cringe at the silhouette that appears before me. In fact it seems a silhouette is not there at all. When I am making pots I pay so much attention to process, construction, function, and surface but so little to the shape of each vessel. It has me thinking about how exactly a potter develops her form.

via Antiques of a Mechanical Nature

This idea came to the forefront of my attention during the recent workshop with Christa Assad that I attended. The shape of her works is so clearly essential to her concept and has become unmistakably identifiable as her own. In the slideshow that accompanied Assad’s demo, several photographs were shown to explain the artist’s direct influence. It was interesting to see how an antique iron becomes a teapot via her imagination. But how do you accomplish such a feat? Assad explained that creating the perfect form doesn't happen overnight. A form is not perfected so much as it is refined, through constant working and reworking of the same vessel. I think this is a good point, but for some, including myself, a starting point can be difficult to come by. I have yet to find my own iron.

Inspired by the practicality of a Bauhaus education, I am now on a mission to provide for myself the course on three-dimensional design that I never had. When I studied 3D design in school it was more of a sculpture primer than a formal course in the fundamental elements of design. I've done some research online and checked out a few good books from the library on the subject including Johannes Itten's Design and Form: The Basic Course at the Bauhaus and Later and Louis Wolchonok's The Art of Three-Dimensional Design. While it looks like these resources have a lot to offer me, I can't help but feel a need for something more specific to pottery.

My friend Amy Horn recently embarked on an interesting exercise to help along her own explorations of form.  It is such a great exercise that I don't know why none of my professors ever gave such an assignment. Working from the visual reference above, Amy embarked on a plan to copy every one of about 30 different forms- in the process discovering which forms felt best to throw, to hold, and to drink from. This is brilliant and ever since I have been in search of more of these "referential menus". (Please let me know if you have any you might care to share.)

Jake Allee

It's also interesting to look at other artist's sketches (like Jake Allee's above and Euan Craig's below) to see how the develop shape in a two dimensional space. In my own sketchbook I have noticed that I only draw form once or twice before moving on to the next idea. In other artist's sketchbooks I'm noticed whole series of forms. Either drawn from one starting point to an evolved end point or in so many variations of one idea as to cover all of ones bases, these collections become a catalog of forms from which to work. And in trying many versions of the same idea, one might arrive at a resolved shape, as Christa Assad explained.

Euan Craig

But before you can even begin to refine your form through throwing exercises or sketches, one must consider what type of form best suits her work. Some questions to consider:

-Do you want a shape that suits your surface or...

-...will you find a surface that suits your shape?

-Does your surface design require smoothness or texture?

-Are your pots intended more for use or more for decoration?

-Will you make molds from these forms for quicker reproduction?

-Which methods of building pottery do you have at your disposal?

-What type of clay body do you care to use?

-Is it important to work in a cohesive series of forms?

-How much time do you have for each piece?

-How much time do you spend on surface treatment?

Kevin Snipes via The Art Room Plant

When I really get to thinking about my work, however, and when I try to answer these questions for myself, I realize that pottery, and more broadly clay, suits my work mostly as a blank canvas. I am not so interested in making forms as I am interested in decorating the surface and telling a story, similarly to artists like Kevin Snipes (above) and Greyson Perry (below). In realizing this my entire understanding of form shifts. I now feel less concerned with making objects and more concerned with how many different forms I can create with a relatively level plane over which I can build my story. While I still love pottery and am fascinated by the history of our media, I need to adapt all I've learned to the ideas I am trying to express. I used to feel frustrated by the fact that I couldn't invent spectacular shapes on the wheel or build intuitively coil by coil, but I've accepted this now. Perhaps the reason I couldn't develop these shapes is because my heart was always thinking about the surface- color, pattern, texture, motif, line. 

Greyson Perry via the Victoria and Albert Museum

I believe this is the greatest jump that I've made in all my seven or so years as a ceramist. I've figured out that my relationship with clay is not about what I can do with the clay but what the clay can do for me.  I am not a ceramic artist. I am an artist who enjoys using clay. And for me, that is perfect.

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A couple more resources on form:

Emily Murphy wrote a great post on the subject on her wonderful blog a while back about wheel thrown forms.

And Ceramic Arts Daily posted a nice little video from Dennise Buckley a couple months ago about hand-built forms.

And if you don't already watch Ron Philbeck's videos, you should start now. He often discusses the relationship between form and surface with really clear insight.


Well, I hope some of you weigh in on this topic. I've been thinking about this post, and actually writing it for a few weeks now. I'd love to hear all of your thoughts, so do chime in with your own bits of wisdom.

Open 4 Discussion: The Importance of Process

I found this nice little ceramist spot with Elephant Ceramics on Design*Sponge, just now during my morning coffee blog stroll. I have a slightly tilted reaction to work like this. In my ceramic-traditionalist brain I'm thinking 'those are just slabs thrown over a hump mold with the edges chopped off and the texture hasn't even been removed." Okay, then I remind myself to think about whether I like it before I critique how it's made (which I know little to nothing about actually). I ask myself, "Is it pretty?" And surprisingly I answer YES! I like it. I know not everyone is as fond of rustic aesthetics as me but I love the unrefined. This little moment made me consider why we think process is so essential to art. I'm learning about this now in contemporary art history. And to me, the process isn't essential to the work, as long as the work can stand on it's own. Now I'm not saying that this collection represents the best of contemporary ceramic art... I don't think that's what the potter is attempting here. I guess its a means and ends question.... Does anyone else ever consider this?

How important do you think process is to the value of the finished work?

(image via artist's website)

Open 4 Discussion: Choosing Your Path

I had a lot of trouble falling asleep last night despite having had a great (and early day), a plentiful serving of Madmen, and just enough time to doodle before turning out the light.  It has become very apparent that I have one goal for this upcoming year. While it's nice to have narrowed it to one certain goal, the goal itself happens to be so humongous when I consider it that my imagination goes running to hide in a dark little corner of my brain.  

You see... I feel like my imagination and my creative energy are spread among too many venues. I love so many mediums and have so many ideas and my hands are naturally inclined to so many skills. I see a beautiful lace pattern and I imagine an installation of mossy netting with magical phrases hidden in a mess of rosettes, lattice, and filet.  I'm introduced to a new artist who creates the most beautiful texture on her pots and all of a sudden I'm pinching a new series of cups out with my fingers and they look wonderful and nothing like anything I've every made before. An embroidered self-portrait assignment throws me into a Willy-Wonka-factory-dream of patterns, colors, and textures. A collection of antique bottles inspires a series of art nouveau inspired perfume bottles, a fantastic workshop results in a set of whimsical and expressive masks, a new technique leads to a series of pillow saucers, and a glance back to the sculptural work I produced last semester rekindles a forgotten love. 

I feel like I'm constantly spinning the wheel of fortune and landing on a different prize every time. Which would be fantastic if I were interested in just collecting ideas... but I'm not. I look at the bodies of work from artists I admire and the cohesiveness tugs on the coattails of my thoughts. How are you going to get anywhere or become great at anything if you can't focus yourself, I hear. And then another voice, who cares, create whatever you want to. At the moment, however, the former is louder and more nagging. 

So my goal this year? Create a cohesive body of work.

I know it sounds kinda big and unrealistic and naive... but I've gotta. I'm getting closer and closer to 30 every year (don't laugh), and I want to have something so show for myself come my fourth decade. Heck, I want to have something to show for my senior project next year! So I've got one idea for how I'm going to attempt this--  Making a list. I know, I know... not a huge flash of genius but it's all I've got at the moment. I'm going to make a list of how many pieces I want done by the end of the summer as well as which forms. 

Ugh, even that seems silly when written down. 

Please help... I'm so unbelievably frustrated.

One

I'm really bad with remembering dates. Thank goodness my honey remembers when our birthdays and anniversary are. But maybe this explains why I totally missed (Mud)Bucket's first birthday.

I know, I'm a horrible mom- I mean blogger. Hopefully, I'll be better at remembering babies' birthdays.

The point is... that I have been posting on this humble little blog for right passed a full year. WOO HOO! I've tried really hard to maintain a close-to-daily blog- which is a lot of work considering I'm in school full-time, work part-time, and have my own studio that I also attend. I'm not slowing down or anything (okay aside from this week- sorry, by the way, for the lack of posts, we had house guests), but I am considering some fun new activities to create more of an interactive blog for you all.

Speaking of you all, I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your readership and the dialog you bring to the table. Watching the counter tick away, reading all the 'this is awesome' comments, comparing the love(it) votes to the (meh) votes, the kind emails, the growing group of followers and subscribers- this all brings so much happiness and encouragement into my life. So thank you, sincerely. I am so grateful to have an audience with which I can share all the ceramic work that inspires me. 

Because this blog is ultimately for all of you, I thought it would be really neat to bring more of you into the spotlight.  So I have a few ideas I would like to share with you, please let me know in the comments which of these ideas you like. If you would like to participate in some of these  new posts, please send me an email (just click the contact button to the right).

Recipes... I dunno why, but I always love a recipe thrown into a good blog once or twice a month.  And seeing as ceramists are always such fabulous cooks, I thought it might be fun to post a fun recipe once in a while. But I would need your help... 

Interviews or artist profiles... I know there are some folks out there that already do this on their blog, and I think it's great! I would like to do some (Mud)Bucket style profiles- aka succinct, inspiring, and novel. I'm thinking of 20ish questions: some single word answers, some photo answers, some sentence or two answers, and maybe a couple in depth answers, but ultimately up to the artist in profile.

Studio tours... Just a spot for folks to share their creative spaces and what they create there. Kind of voyeuristic, but cummon, who doesn't love a sneak peek.

City guides... Sounds kinda weird but I've always wanted to find this somewhere. You know, say you live in Albuquerque, NM... You can share your favorite spots for clay in Albuquerque, so someone visiting or moving might have a better idea of what to check out- galleries, shops, studios, suppliers, events, etc.

Product reviews... I think we could all benefit from this one.

Show and tell... Sharing your collections. Anything ceramic... pottery, sculpture, thing-a-ma-bobs, figurines...

Giveaways...? I haven't really worked this one out in my head yet. I just think it's so cool when other bloggers do this. :)

If you like these ideas or have others, please say so.

If you really like one and would like to participate in one of these columns, send me an email and tell me which column you are interested in in the subject line.

Finally, thanks again for your loyal readership over this last year. I hope the next is even better!

Cheers!

(photo of Jason Huff's work via his website)

Open For Discussion: The Brent ie Wheel

So does anyone know about this wheel? I need to buy a wheel soooon... but alas, I am a student and on limited funds, and unless I can find something soon on craigslist or the local message boards (or if by miracle a wheel arrives delivered on my doorstep) I'm gonna have to shell out for a new wheel.

So what have you heard if anything?

And what about the Pacifica GT400?

P.S. If you have any other affordable wheel recommendations or a wheel you want to sell me, please do not hesitate to let me know. ;)

Open 4 Discussion: Uninspired...

I'm feeling kinda uninspired lately... The blog feels a little stodgy to me, I haven't run across much work that is getting me going, I'm procrastinating about my beefing up my studio and not excited for school this semester...

I dunno, I thought I'd put it to all of you faithful readers. Talk to me...

What do you do when plagued by lack of inspiration?

Whose work are you totally in love with right now?

What is something new you would like to see on this blog?

Let me know.

Also, the above photo is one of my sculpture pieces from last semester. I need a good place to put it. Haven't got a clue where.

Open 4 Discussion: DIY Tools

I stumbled on this list of DIY ceramic tool ideas the other day when trying to figure out if I could make my own slab bevel. Like I said yesterday, I'll take a Dirty Girls slab bevel instead, my time is precious at this point in my life. But this list is neat and I wanted to share it with you.

My favorite tips? Petroleum jelly to slow drying proccess, white glue instead of wax resist in a pinch, and using a toilet brush to mix glazes. Genius.

A couple tips from myself? Floss as a cutting wire in a pinch, attach fishing bobbers to your shammies so they float in your water, wine corks + sewing needles = best scoring tool ever. Actually none of those are my own tips... Just the ones from friends that I love. I'm not that clever.

So it's Open 4 Discussion: Who else has DIY tool secrets they want to share?

(image via Apartment Therapy)

Weekend Rewind

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. Today I was completely free which meant a visit with a very good friend accompanied by a fresh brunch and delicious tea. My friend, Crys, is a wizard in the kitchen and always inspires me to cook better and more. Sort of like Jamie Oliver, who I adore. Sometimes when I feel stressed about time and getting things done in my life, I forget the importance of cooking. It slows you down, relaxes you, nourishes and inspires you. And it's totally fun and sooo rewarding. I've purchased Cook with Jamie for friends before but never for myself. Today I bit the bullet and grabbed a used copy so my honey and I can enjoy it, too.

I feel like potters, and perhaps ceramic artists in general, have a reputation of being wonderful cooks... I can't argue. I think we are fantastic in the kitchen. Maybe it's because working with clay teaches us the rewards of patience and good technique, but really I don't know.

So, it's Open 4 Discussion: Why do you think potters are so great in the kitchen?

And on another note, what are your favorite recipes, cookbooks, or celeb chefs?

Oh yes, and art. Here's a brief recap of the MVPs (most valuable posts) of last week...

On Etsy: Hue Yang: Again... I can't afford one of Hue's darling pieces yet, but if anyone else can and wants to buy one for a friend, I think that's a great idea. ::wink, wink::

Noelle Nakama and Jason Dunn Workshop: Got a couple sweet tips in this one.

Stillwell 2009: I didn't enter this year. (Mental note: make sure to next year.) But Our 2nd year grad student, Miss Shenny Cruces, is showing this year and her work is killer rad.

Off Subject: Frank Stella: I'm drawing a boat load of inspiration from Stella right now. So I'm pushing him on all of you, too.

Enjoy!

Open 4 Discussion: Content

I just returned from a crazy wonderful trip to Oklahoma and Texas to meet my fiance's family. Having slept very little I bravely attempted to return to class shortly after landing at SFO. Upon walking into the studio however I was overwhelmed with a sense of panic.

Looking around me I saw that my classmates had all made giant leaps in their work while I was gone which made me feel only further and further behind. I stared at my works in progress hoping to get a kick start with them but could find not a single direction in my mind to take it. I wrapped them up carefully and returned them to the damp room.

I then grapped a bag of remaining porcelain and rolled some slabs to begin working on a new project for class, similar to the project I worked on over the summer. But no luck- the slabs began misbehaving immediately and I found myself without the proper tools to head onward with the concept.

But looking at what I have so far a thunder began to roll inside my chest. (This is one way I can describe what panic physically feels like for me.) As I considered my progress so far I began to grow more and more concerned with the lack of content in my work. I feel like my art doesn't say anything. It lacks cohesion, meaning, reference. And this is what turns the roll of thunder into a sinking quake.

My teacher has asked three projects of us this semester: figurative, realism, and choice. I can do the choice one fine, but guidelines like narrative figurative and realism make me choke. I don't know what to sculpt. I'm into abstraction, geometry, pattern, and images... not people and seashells. I'm lost. I don't know where to go with these assignments and I need help. I suppose I should ask my teacher, but one- he provokes my anxiety and two- I don't really want his opinion.

So I ask you reading, how do you deal with content? How do you figure out what to say when you don't want to say much? How do you put yourself into a piece that someone else is requesting when you don't really want to fulfill the request by have to?

I suppose I'm lacking inspiration. But the end of wet clay work deadline is approaching fast and I feel as though I'm falling down the rabbit hole.

Help.

(image of work by Jasna Sokolovic)

Open 4 Discussion: Collecting Ceramic Objects

I am wondering... do ceramic artists collect ceramic art? Do we collect ceramic tchotchkes? On the whole I mean. I know that I do to an extent. I collect those Japanese bowls, seconds from potters I like or mini-sculptures likewise from sculptors. I would collect Dutch ceramic clogs if I found them more often, and English teacups. But I realize that I don't really have a filter for what I collect except that I only take home that what pleases my eyes, my heart, and my hands.

I dunno... I'm putting it out there. What do you think of collecting ceramic objects, be they art or otherwise?

Open 4 Discussion: Ceramic 'Art'?

So the question that's been meandering around my brain since I posted about the ceramist versus ceramicist thing is 'Why am I so triggered by these two words?' I think I know the answer and it boils down to a feeling of exclusion. And that makes me feel completely whiny but I think there is some validity to this. Artists working primarily in ceramic are still fighting the remnants of a societal agreement that ceramic is pottery and pottery is a craft not fine art. Voulkos and Arneson and Frey and Autio all toiled to bring us out of the craft age but we're still struggling to be excepted in the fine arts' world.

What I see, and I could be completely wrong so do correct me if I am, is one or two ceramic artists breaking through into recognition by the fine arts' world every once in a while. However, the majority of our appreciators seem to in fact be ourselves. In other words, ceramic artists primarily make art for other ceramic artists. We engage in a unique and private dialogue that is more difficult for outsiders to understand than say the dialogue between painters or metalsmiths. Our proccess is less accessible to general patrons of the arts and so the general fine arts audience becomes less accessible to us.

It is not only the complexity of our medium however that keeps equal recognition at bay. Time has its hands at work here as well. Because time is so integral in the actual process of the ceramic medium, there is an unequivocal amount of preparation and planning that goes into a ceramic sculpture. Take Jun Kaneko for example. The sheer scale of his work drastically affects the time frame of each piece. In order to ensure a full return from the kiln, he fires at a rate 10 times or more slower than a traditional firing. In the case of Kurt Weiser's sculpture, time plays a role in the number of different firings the artist has to preform just to get the layers and depth of color from china paint that a painter using acrylic or oil could develop over a couple days.

That it takes longer to produce ceramic art means there is a delay in the expression of our ideas that doesn't exist as often for artists using other mediums. This is in no means meant to say that other fine art doesn't take time as well. I recognize that some paintings and sculptures take years to produce. What I am saying is that completing those works in ceramic would most likely take even longer.

This is sort of a cop out, though, and I see that. There has to be more reason that ceramic art seems slightly delayed when it comes to contemporary art movements. I'd love to know if anyone else has a take on this.

It seems to me that there is a strange community affliction in the ceramic world that hinders our ability to meet on the same level as other art forms. We seem to rely heavily on tradition in this medium. There are essential rules governing the medium that seem to be pulling us back from the edge of creativity. These rules differ slightly from school to school but they all say the same thing: Breaking from tradition is dangerous and highly discouraged. For instance, your teachers might prohibit you from using certain surfacing techniques or frown upon the use of other mediums in your ceramic work. Perhaps it is that your teachers discourage innovative throwing methods or novel production concepts. It might even come down to what content is acceptable for your ceramic work. It seems that the ceramic world, at least in the US, is terrified of change. (Kind of ironic considering the California Funk Movement.)

Really I don't know. It's just something that has been on my mind a lot recently and I wanted to put it out there. Please tell me what you think, if you agree or disagree or find it completely irrelevant. I'm really curious about this.

(image of Stilt #2 by Anders Ruhwald via Danish Crafts)

Open 4 Discussion: 'Ceramicist' vs. 'Ceramist'

Okay, perhaps this is just a pet peeve of mine, but I can't stand it when people use the term ceramicist.

Bottom line? It's incorrect!

And it sounds dumb.

And it shows a general lack of respect for our profession and community.

The worst is when ceramists themselves use the term. Ugh! Even worse is that people have been using the incorrect term for so long that spell check doesn't even work on it...

I've told a million people and I'll tell everyone reading here:

Saying ceramicist is like saying artisist.

Get it? See, it is stupid.

I dunno... What does everyone else think? Is it silly for me to be so bothered?

(image of work by Jet Mous via Apartment Therapy found by an image search on Google for ceramicist)